Fractions Division Knowledge of Elementary School Student: The Case of Lala
Fractions Division Knowledge of Elementary School Student: The Case of Lala
Purnomo, Yoppy Wahyu
Division of fractions is often acknowledged by mysterious rule which is not based on conceptual knowledge. The purpose of the study was to explore elementary school student’s knowledge of division fractions. For this purpose, a case study was conducted. The participant of the study was Lala (pseudonym) who enrolled at one elementary school in East Jakarta. The data were collected by administering written test and semi-structured interview respectively. The findings of the study indicated that Lala was able to describe strategy of division fractions as inverse of repeated addition flexibly. She also had basic understanding of fractions division concept as equal sharing, but when she was challenged with advance problems, she performed poorly. Lala also encountered difficulty when dealing with dividing fraction by fraction problem in which she interpreted it as subtraction problem. In this case, her procedural knowledge was likely to be more salient than her conceptual knowledge.
Division of fractions is often acknowledged by mysterious rule which is not based on conceptual knowledge. The purpose of the study was to explore elementary school student’s knowledge of division fractions. For this purpose, a case study was conducted. The participant of the study was Lala (pseudonym) who enrolled at one elementary school in East Jakarta. The data were collected by administering written test and semi-structured interview respectively. The findings of the study indicated that Lala was able to describe strategy of division fractions as inverse of repeated addition flexibly. She also had basic understanding of fractions division concept as equal sharing, but when she was challenged with advance problems, she performed poorly. Lala also encountered difficulty when dealing with dividing fraction by fraction problem in which she interpreted it as subtraction problem. In this case, her procedural knowledge was likely to be more salient than her conceptual knowledge.
